


All We Ever Knew

by OrdinaryVegan



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Gen, M/M, Post-Canon, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 08:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9648506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrdinaryVegan/pseuds/OrdinaryVegan
Summary: Robin comes to Neil for life advice, and he is surprisingly helpful.





	

**Author's Note:**

> AFTG Valentine's Day Exchange gift for @rideaminuteinmystirrups who requested some Neil-Robin friendship! my first ever fic so let's see how this goes.

It is twelve minutes past 3:00 in the morning, and if Neil is not mistaken, he just heard a knock at his front door. He was expecting Andrew to get here sometime during the night after his drive up from Raleigh, but why would he knock? Andrew has had a key since the day Neil signed the lease.

Resigning himself to the idea that maybe Andrew just lost it (even though he never loses anything), Neil grudgingly rolls out of bed and shuffles across his apartment floor. He unlocks the door and cautiously pulls it open, preparing himself for any number of his paranoia-induced nightmares to be waiting on the other side. The first thing Neil sees is a bright orange hoodie and a duffle bag held close to its owner’s chest. It’s startling, like looking at a carbon copy of his younger self. The other details of the person in front of him slowly piece themselves together through his sleep-addled brain, and his recognition startles him almost more than his previous assessment.

“Robin,” Neil says.

“Neil,” she replies.

He steps back and lets her inside without another word, pushing Sir out of the doorway with his foot so he can’t make a run for it.

Robin steps inside, glancing around the room with caution like she might decide to bolt. They’ve kept in touch, of course, but not as much as either of them would have liked. Robin’s new responsibilities as captain and Neil’s new placement on a team closer to Andrew’s didn’t make it any easier. But they do still talk at least once a week, which is why Neil is thrown off by her showing up unannounced. He stays at the door for a moment to give her space while she decides what to do. With a defeated sigh, she slumps into the couch and tugs her hood off. She pulls her dark, bushy hair into a ponytail just to get it out of her face, then turns to look at Neil.

He walks into the living room and takes a seat in the armchair several feet away. He tries to appear nonchalant, but he’s probably failing. He knows he can wait her out though, he’s had more than enough practice with Andrew.

One eternity later, Robin finally cracks.

“Hi,” she says, as though they haven’t been sitting in an awkward silence for almost thirty minutes.

“Hey,” Neil says, still waiting for her to take the lead.

She sighs again and pulls her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. She looks so small and vulnerable that Neil is already making plans to kill whoever made her feel this scared.

She trains her gaze on the floor and says, “Coach says the Chargers want me.”

Neil blinks, secretly thrilled but not about to let his excitement scare her away. He stares until she finally looks up him. Then he says, “Okay. And?”

She raises her head sharply and narrows her eyes. “They’re one of the top twenty-five teams in the nation, Neil.”

“I’m aware,” he says. Of course he is. 

“Seriously? That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?” She’s getting angry now, her hands are clenched into fists in front of her shins.

“It’s an amazing opportunity, Robin. I don’t see the problem.”

“Are you kidding? You saw me when I first got to Palmetto, okay, I know how awful I was.”

“Yeah, you were pretty bad.” He’s not going to lie to her, not when she’s in crisis mode. “But that was four years ago. You’ve worked your ass off every day since then, and you know you’re good enough to handle this. I know it, Kevin knows it, Andrew knows it, and Wymack knows it. None of us would let you sign if we thought you weren’t good enough. You have to—”

"No,” she cuts him off. “You’re just saying that because you’re obsessed with Exy, and you want me to keep playing. It doesn’t matter to you if I’m lining up for the chopping block with people who have been Class I material since they were ten years old.”

Neil stares at her, momentarily shocked that she thinks he would lie to her. Neil makes it a point not to lie anymore. Especially to people who matter. He clears his throat.

“I don’t care if they’re better than you. I don’t care if you’re the worst player in the league. I know that no matter what, you will fight back. You’ll fight for your spot, for your team, and for yourself. I’ve seen it. How do you think you survived your first year as a Fox?”

“Andrew—”

"This isn’t about Andrew,” Neil steps in. “This is about you knowing what you’re made of. All Andrew did was help you realize that. He made you uncomfortable, and he pushed you until you finally fought for what you wanted. You learned how to save yourself. So I feel perfectly okay with telling you to sign on, because I know that you can hold your own. You are good enough, Robin. You know you are. You don’t have to be invisible anymore.”

When he stops, Robin looks up to meet his eyes. He thinks he sees the determination winning out over the stubbornness. She looks back down at her hands and mutters, “Fine.”

Neil takes that as a win. He’s known Robin long enough to know when her better judgement has taken over. Now, she just looks exhausted. He gets up from the chair and walks to the kitchen, grabs a bottle of water and tosses it to her over the counter. Then he goes to the bedroom to grab the spare blanket he keeps in the closet. He drops it over her without a word and goes back to his armchair, prepared to wait until she falls asleep.

Robin gets comfortable and studiously looks anywhere but at Neil. King jumps up and settles in between the couch and the backs of her legs. Neil muffles a laugh a few minutes later when she starts snoring.

He wakes up an hour later to the sound of his name. He cracks his eyes open to see Andrew crouched in front of him, a hand slowly moving to hover above Neil’s head. Neil gives him a nod, and Andrew runs his fingers through Neil’s hair, then pointedly looks from him over to Robin.

“She got an offer,” Neil tells him, barely containing the excitement he had to reign in earlier. “The Chargers.”

“Okay,” Andrew answers.

“She showed up about two hours ago. She’s worried she isn’t good enough,” he explains, though he knows Andrew doesn’t particularly care for the details. “I basically told her that she needs to get over it.”

“I’m sure that was helpful,” Andrew deadpans.

“Yeah,” Neil says. “I think it was.”

He lets Andrew drag him off to bed, leaving Robin and King to finish out the night in peace. When Neil wakes up the next morning, he creeps through the apartment silently, hoping to let Robin sleep as long as possible. He arrives in the living room to find an annoyed King alone on the couch, no trace of Robin ever having been there. Although, he admits to himself, he’s really not too surprised.

However, he is surprised to find a small, orange sticky note hanging from the refrigerator. He starts the coffee machine and walks over, gently pulling it off and taking in the single word message:

“Thanks.”

Neil smiles to himself, then turns to find Andrew leaning against the kitchen doorframe, staring at him.

Andrew rolls his eyes at the look on Neil’s face.

“Look at this,” Neil says, gesturing with the sticky note still attached to his hand. “She actually thanked me. This is physical proof that she likes me better.”

Andrew’s only reply was a raised eyebrow and a muttered, “486%.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! title is from a song by The Head and The Heart of the same name.
> 
> come scream with me on tumblr @theordinaryvegan


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